The naked escape
by wandererangel
Summary: You cannot change who you are. You might change what you are, or have it changed for you. And once changed, you might find the things you were so certain of before don't count anymore. But deep down inside, you can't change who you are. Especially when you're a friend, and another friend needs you. the Doctor and Jack get stuck in a dungeon, getting out is going to hurt. Whump.
1. Chapter 1

_Weee! new story! :D_

_this was written cause I love ten/jack interaction. they just work so well together. _

_I wanted this story to really be about their complicated relationship, but then jack just sorta took over and made it all dirty :P I blame the jack in my head for all the dirty jokes. the title's also jack's fault, he made me. I'm completely innocent. :)_

_*disclaimer* I own nothing, if I did it would be utter pr0n. XD _

* * *

*chapter one*

"I like being naked!"

Yeah, you know what, he does.

"I'll say it again. I like being naked!"

The sound of his voice reverberates off the stone walls surrounding him.

Jack really _does _ like being naked. He likes it a lot. He likes it during the day and at night. He likes it before sex, after sex and of course while having sex. He likes it with other people or all by himself. And in all kinds of places too! Like in his office for example, _hehehe, yeah that was always fun,_ or on the beach, in public bathhouses and on the Tardis. _Yeah, he'd loved being naked on the Tardis._

Jack likes being butt. Ass. Naked. It was never a punishment when someone undressed him, he was pretty difficult to embarrass. So, fuck it, yeah, he even likes it here, in this dark little stone cell they put him in.

What he didn't like though, was the temperature. He really wouldn't mind the thermostat being cranked up a coupla notches, 'cause with the cold right now anyone walking in could get a very inaccurate impression of _certain_ parts of him. And that would be a darn shame to have happen to people.

So up the heating!

Or maybe get him some underpants after all. He was getting goosebumps in weird places.

* * *

Jack had been in this cell for four days now. He'd been fiddling with an Onshal holo-projector…that turned out not to be a holo-projector. Big flash. Big bang. Big freakin' lump on his head and now he was here. He'd teleported himself straight into this cell.

'Course, they shot him. He woke up. They shot him again. He woke up again and they got scared and just decided to chain him to the wall.

A day later they undressed him. Jack immediately seized the opportunity to try and flirt his way out of the chains, but they took offense to that and left. He thinks they might have wanted to change him in other clothes, but he guesses he blew that chance.

Day three was interesting. They came in to feed him and let him pee. And boy, were they ever fascinated by that! They were just reaching up to his manacles when a strange siren went off and they all sort of froze. The siren was followed by a series of bleeps and made them all turn to Jack with a dirty look on their faces. They left in a rush and hadn't come back in the cell since.

He'd spent the rest of that third day listening to the commotion outside of his cell. People shouting commands, panicked sounds and frightened voices. A humanoid voice shouting something, the aliens that were keeping Jack weren't humanoid _at all_, so a voice like that was pretty distinguishable. Sounded like a guy. He sounded pissed.

_Wait 'till they get you naked, buddy,_ Jack thought. And then he thought, _hey, maybe I'm getting a bunkmate. _Then he looked down, _I hope he'll be reasonable about the temperature in here._

The third day passed without any visitors, though. He didn't see the humanoid man.

* * *

So it was the fourth day now. Jack was getting bored. He was still in the same cell, still naked, still shackled to a wall and he really needed to pee –ah, no wait…okay, he was good.

He was starting to think they were keeping him naked for a reason. Usually when you take away a prisoner's clothes you do it to make them feel vulnerable and ashamed. Well, it wasn't working, he was just getting cold and annoyed. It didn't seem to register with his captors though, hence his loud declarations.

No response, though, and Jack was beginning to think they were ignoring him, or even worse, had forgotten about him! And Hell, that was just rude!

He was just about to shout something very impolite, when he heard something outside his cell door.

He strained his hearing, it sounded like it was coming closer. Maybe he was getting a bunkmate after all.

He could hear that humanoid voice again. It sounded different now. It was still the same voice, no doubt, but it sounded…scared or hurt or something like that.

The door opened and in came (well, he was dragged and struggling quite a bit) the one person Jack had never expected to show up. Especially looking like that. Especially naked *_woohoo*. _

Jack stared at him as he was forced inside the cell with him. The Doctor. Looking nothing like the Doctor he remembered, but it was definitely him. He could feel it, he could tell.

_WOW_, he was hot like this. Great hair, great bod, GREAT ass, and not affected by the cold at all, Jack noticed. _And if he was, then…double WOW._

Jack definitely didn't mind sharing this cell with the Doctor, this was - …wait…okay, something wasn't right here. Something about the Doctor wasn't right at all. He wasn't just struggling, he was _fighting_ to get free. To get away. He was terrified.

"Doctor!" Jack called to him.

The Doctor shuddered and froze, his momentary distraction was enough for the aliens to finally kick him into the cell with Jack. They didn't bother chaining him up, they just quickly shut the door and left. Jack caught a glimpse of one of their faces though. He didn't like the smirk he saw on it one bit.

Jack turned his attention back to the Doctor who had crawled to the very end of the cell, as far away from Jack as he could get, and was currently trying to push himself into the wall it looked like.

He was shaking, his whole body tense, his face was in a grimace and his eyes scrunched shut.

He would not look at Jack.

"Doc…You okay over there?"

At Jack's voice the Doctor jerked. He curled himself into an even tighter ball, his fists grasping large clumps of hair.

"Doc? Doc, c'mon, you're scarin' me."

The Doctor whimpered. _Whimpered_. At Jack's voice.

Jack pulled on his chains. "Doc, if you don't start talking, I'm gonna come over there."

That got him a response.

"No…p-please…"

"Doc, c'mon, you're freaking me out here. Talk to me. Are you hurt? What'd they do?" Jack paused a moment and then asked the question that was burning on his tongue. "And why on earth are you here?" He didn't ask how, the answer was obvious, he would 've come in the Tardis.

"Onshal…"

"What was that?"

"Not Earth…Onshal. This is Onshal."

_Oh. _Well, that kinda made sense. He _had_ been working on a holo-…no transporter- thingy from Onshal. You know what, their workmanship sucked and their transporters play lousy movies.

"And I came here…to get you."

Jack instantly perked up. He came for him? Specifically for him? He wanted so bad to tell the Doctor how much that meant to him, but a good look at him stopped his words.

He looked pained. Jack had seen that he was shaking and tense before, and the whimpering had scared the crap outta him, but now that he looked closely at him, _really _looked, the Doctor looked awful.

He was pale and breathing hard. He looked like something was hurting him really bad.

Jack realised that the Doctor hadn't answered him when he'd asked if they'd hurt him.

"What went wrong?" Jack asks, softly.

The Doctor cracks open his eyes and slowly, wincing, turns his head towards Jack.

"I didn't know," he says, and his eyes look so sad when he says it.

Jack swallows a lump. "Didn't know…about what?"

"About what happened to you, what she did..," he hesitates. "…What it would mean."

"You mean how I can't die." Jack states more than asks. The Doctor nods.

"And what _she_ did…you mean Rose, right?" Another nod. "Rose did this to me?" Jack breathes. And he sounds so lost when he says it, like he can't believe his sweet Rosie could hate him that much to do that to him, it makes the Doctor want to get up and jump to her defence. Explain how she did it out of love. How she loved both of them too much to let any of them die on her. She just lacked control, is all. And he was so confused at the time, right in the middle of regeneration, nothing made sense back then. He'd thought Jack to be dead. Had mourned him and tried to move on, for Rose as well.

It wasn't 'till he got that signal through the Tardis that he realised Jack was still out there. He'd set course immediately, chased after it and landed without looking where he was. He'd made it a couple of feet before Jack's wrongness had hit him like a tonne of bricks and he'd known instantly what must have happened. What Rose had done. It had taken him a few extra seconds to link his discovery to his current situation, '_cause, blimey, it hurt!_ And understand that he wouldn't be able to get close to Jack.

He'd tried to leave but he was set upon by their captors, then he'd tried to argue, tried to get them to let Jack go, but they wouldn't hear of it. he'd collapsed shortly after that, they took him too close.

Shalpi, _that's what they were, Shalpi from Onshal_, were really too clever for their own good. Well…_his_ own good. They'd figured out that his collapse had to do with his proximity to their other prisoner and seeing as they were already in a foul mood from having two unexpected intruders in their cell complex, they took the opportunity to drag some answers out of the Doctor. When he wouldn't cooperate they'd gotten angry and decided to just dump him in the same cell with Jack. See if that loosened his tongue a little.

The Doctor had not known a terror like he felt when he realised they were going to lock him in with Jack.

"And…" Jacks voice cuts through the Doctor's musings. "What _does_ it mean, Doc?"

Jack sounds so afraid and he's just so sorry. It's his fault really. Rose did it, but it was his Tardis and if he hadn't…it's his fault. It always is.

"It means I…that you…it means that…." The Doctor takes a deep breath. Just tell him, better he knows who condemned him. "It means that you _burn_."

"You're a…a Fact. Time moves, but you stand s-still. You feel…wrong…t-to me. And it's not your fault, Jack, nothing you can do. It's me, really. It's my fault. Time Lord you see, so time-sensitive, you're so bright to me."

"So, being near me hurts you?" Jack asks in a small voice.

"It's my fault", the Doctor emphasizes again. "It's just me. My instincts, they…t-they _scream_ at you, at me too. Everything inside me tells me to run. It's…I-I'm scared, Jack." He finishes and looks away again, hugging himself tight as a shudder overcomes him.

"But you're okay, right? I mean, where you are now. You're not that close to me right now," Jack tries, desperately. The Doctor looks away.

"You're not okay", Jack concludes, resignedly.

"The closer you are to-…_I_ am to you, the worse it gets."

"Yeah.."

They're both quiet for a while. Both of them, Jack most of all, have to let it sink in before they can say anything again.

Jack breaks the uneasy silence between them. "How does it feel?"

The Doctor hesitates, but then he answers.

"Blinding," he breathes, "the pain is blinding. Searing. Everywhere at once, in every part of my body, every cell, it burns. There's no escape and I feel like…I feel…" he swallows hard and hugs himself. "I feel like I'm on fire."

"Ouch," Jack says.

"Yeah," the Doctor chuckles a little and throws Jack a brave smile.

*end of chapter one*

* * *

_and so ends chapter one. I have no idea how long this is going to be. I actually thought it was going to be a oneshot, haha...yeah... _

_tune in next time, more whump, more angst, exactly the same amount of clothing. ;) _


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter two is here!_

_please be aware that this has a bit more swearing, but I always imagined Jack to be more swear-y the more stressed he gets. _

_more whump, I love the whump! more whump still to come... ;)_

_enjoy!_

* * *

*chapter two*

"Did you pee on the floor?"

"Wut?"

"Did you _pee_ on the _floor_?"

"Er…" Jack garbles out. He had dozed off a little after their last chat. They'd talked for a while, the Doctor explaining about Rose, about how he got here and what had happened after he'd landed. Jack mostly talked about what he'd done in the past few hundred years. Having to stand for four days straight had finally caught up to Jack, though, and he'd drifted off.

Which meant he now found himself struggling to shake off the sleepiness and come up with some kind of sensible response.

"…I…uh…no?"

"You peed on the floor."

The Doctor sighs. Though is that a bit of mock exasperation Jack detects?

"When you gotta go…", Jack tries and throws the Doctor a sheepish grin. The Doctor rolls his eyes at him and Jack has to fight the urge to stick out his tongue…or wiggle his *_still naked*_ hips and show off his dangly bits, nothing like a bit of blatant obscenity to change the mood, right?

"Are you better then?" Jack asks.

"Huh?" This time it's the Doctor's turn to react confused.

"Well, you're cracking jokes…"

"You're cracking jokes. I'm glowering disapprovingly", the Doctor corrects, but he smiles a bit when he does.

And then he turns away again.

"But no, I-I'm not. Better, that is", he sighs.

"Oh…"

Jack's face falls. _For the tiniest moment he had dared to hope._

"But, well", the Doctor says quickly, seeing how heartbroken Jack looks at him. "I'm not better…that is, it s-still… still burns. That hasn't changed. But I guess I'm…coping? A bit, at least.

It's like… like I'm squinting. You're still bright. B-blinding me, but I can squint a-and it makes it…not easier, but a bit more…bearable, maybe.

Perhaps, if I try, I can learn to raise my arm, or buy a pair of sunglasses." He smirks and puts a lot of effort in the laugh he forces out.

Jack's not buying it, though. His mind is stuck on what the Doctor said before his failed attempt at a joke.

"A bit more bearable… but not…" he swallows, "not enough…is it?" Jacks says softly, his eyes almost begging the Doctor to tell him he's wrong. _But that's the problem isn't it? he _is _Wrong._

The Doctor doesn't answer his question. He curls himself into an even tighter ball and presses his forehead against the stone wall.

In a voice almost too soft to be heard he says:

"I'm sorry."

* * *

The door slams open and two large Shalpi males walk in, followed by about four slightly smaller females.

Jack notices the Doctor flinch and that immediately sets him on edge. He follows their movements with wary eyes.

The two burly males stride over to the Doctor and Jack's heart jumps in his throat when he sees him panic badly. He's scrabbling at the walls, scraping his bare heels over the floor when he kicks out, trying to get away from the Shalpi males. But there's nowhere he can go, he's already pushed himself into his corner as far possible.

Jack's stomach joins the party with a backflip of its own when the males roughly pull the Doctor to his feet and start moving him to the centre of the cell.

Closer to Jack.

Any hope Jack had that the Doctor was exaggerating the pain is completely destroyed as he watches him come closer.

At first the Doctor's just struggling, but the closer he gets, the more the terror sets in. After only a few steps he starts crying out, a few more steps and he's begging them to let him go, a few more and he's screaming.

"_HHAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!_"

"Stop it! You assholes, let him go. Get the fuck away from him!" Jack yells, outraged and gutwrenchingly afraid. How can his mere proximity cause the Doctor so much pain? _What kind of evil, corrupted thing must he be to do this to the man he loves so much._

Two final steps and the Doctor's screaming breaks off with a horrible choking sound. Jack has less than a second to feel relieved that the screaming has stopped before the guilt hits him again. The Doctor is convulsing in the Shalpi's iron grip. He can't scream because he can't suck enough air into his lungs.

Jack thinks this can't possibly get any worse, but the universe loves to prove him wrong and he forgets to breathe as he watches patches of reddened skin slowly emerge on the Doctor's naked frame. Then they begin to blister and Jack wants to vomit.

He sees the males adjust their grip and thinking they want to move the Doctor even closer, panics.

He stops shouting at them and puts all his weight and considerable strength into pulling on his chains. If they won't take the Doctor away, he'll have to pull himself free to put more distance between them. His already chafed wrists are scraped open, but Jack doesn't notice the blood running down his forearms. He's giving it all he's got, but the chains don't budge.

One of the females hits him hard on the head with what looks like a big metal bucket_. He forgot about the females._

The knock makes his vision blur and his thoughts sluggish. He thinks he feels blood running down the back of his neck, but he might just have contortion…concession…his head hurts.

The male whistles and burps at the small female that hit Jack. She's stopped him struggling and they're pleased. She twitches her third pair of feeling appendages and shows a few dark spots around her lower back that might be a blush of some kind, then she steps back again.

The males resume their interrogation. They know the smaller one can still hear them. They squeak and bark and smack their lips, he trembles and quakes and eventually wheezes his answer.

They scowl, disgusted at him and drop him on the floor. he falls in a limp heap and expels bile from his stomach. Several affronted gasps are uttered from the females standing by the door, a stern twitter from the males quiets them.

One of the males then calmly walks over to Jack, still hanging dazed in his chains, and unlocks his manacles, letting him crumple to the floor as well.

He strides back to the quivering mess that is the Doctor, bends down and chirps a little song, ending on a low, thrumming note.

He straightens and ushering the rest of the group out in front of him, leaves the cell, letting the heavy door slam shut behind him.

* * *

When Jack wakes up it's to a massive headache. He groans and shifts his head a bit, before deciding that is not a good idea. He cracks his eyes open a little and peeks between the slits to see where he is.

He's lying face down on some kind of grass or reed or something. It kinda resembles straw but it's a dirty brownish colour and it smells weird.

It's dry though and soft and it doesn't smell like pee.

_Wait._

Jack moves his hand through the brownish straw, the stone is damp beneath it, but not with urine.

_The bucket, _he thinks. _The one she hit me over the head with_. He figures the bucket must have had water in it that they used to clean the floor with…before using it to thump him with it. The straw's a nice change though, 's a lot warmer than the cold floor. which is especially nice seeing as he's _still naked_.

Then he realizes he's lying on the floor, free to move and not chained to the freaking wall, and he can bloody punch himself.

He jerks upright. "NAaaaghh", and immediately regrets it. His headache reminds him of the bump on his head and he instinctively reaches for it, his hand comes away sticky with half dried blood.

It tells him he hasn't been out that long.

He blinks and scrubs his blood-free hand over his face to chase away the haze. He looks around and his gaze falls on the still form of the Doctor.

_No, not still. Oh thank the fucking lord, not still._

The Time Lord is facing him where he lies. His eyes are closed and Jack thinks (_hopes_) he isn't conscious. He starts to move towards him and the Doctor reflexively flinches, but doesn't respond otherwise. Oh, right. Jack forgot about that.

It has been at least fifty-three years since Jack has felt the urge to cry. But seeing the Doctor lying like that just a few feet from him, wanting nothing more than to pick him up and hold him 'till the pain goes away, yet unable to for fear of hurting him even more…Jack angrily wipes his face and pretends the dampness on the back of his hand is from the wet floor.

Jack's not good at this. He needs something to fight. He needs something to fight him. Something he can punch, or shoot. _Or choke the fucking life out of when he gets his hands on them._

He needs to have a mission, have purpose. He needs it to function and not feel so fucking useless sitting here on dirty brown straw staring at the Doctor who's trying to jerk away from him even though he's fucking unconscious.

Fuck!

He needs something that will distract him from thinking what he doesn't want to think about.

_I did this._

Then the Doctor stirs and lets out the most heartbreaking, scared, _hopeless_ whimper Jack has ever heard a sentient being make. Like he's barely even aware of where he is, but he had such hope that when he woke up it would all turn out to be a horrible nightmare, and now all that hope is crushed as he realizes it wasn't, he's still here and it's not over.

Jack has to pretend about the wet floor again.

The Doctor opens his eyes and looks at Jack. His eyes are bloodshot, surrounded by dark bruise-like shadows and sunken deeply in their sockets, and for the tiniest of moments they show all the pain, guilt and unimaginable fear the Time Lord must feel. But then he blinks and it's gone and he's fighting so hard to be strong again – _for Jack, for himself, who knows_.

He keeps holding Jack's gaze. _I'm sorry_, his eyes say, _I'm so, so sorry._

Jack catches the look. And breaks in half.

He's so sorry too, and he's scared, he's drowning in guilt. But he's so fucking angry too! So fucking angry that this happened, that those fuckers dragged the Doctor here knowing what it would do to him. He's angry _he_ knows. He didn't want to know about this, that he could do this to a man he loves so fucking much. He's scared and he's angry and he hates this messed up _thing_ he is now and it's all just too much. Too much.

He crumples to the floor, head pressed against the damp stone, fists clenching around clumps of straw, trying _so_ hard not to cry.

The Doctor closes his own eyes, he doesn't know about the floor-pretend, his tears run freely down his cheeks. He never wanted this, never wanted to be this scared of a friend. Never wanted to be so happy to know he is alive and so terrified of being near him at the same time.

_And the pain! It eats through him. He's swimming on the surface of a sun and it BURNS._

He takes a deep breath. He doesn't want to do this. Just thinking about it makes him want to throw up.

But he has to. The Shalpi, Ipsis, told him so.

* * *

"_Tell us what you are, who the larger one is. How did you get here? We want it for ourselves, tell us. Tell us how to use your power. Tell us or we'll bring you closer. Tell us or we'll let him come to you. _

_TELL US!_"

"…_I w-won't.."_

"_Then we will leave you here with him. We'll let him loose so he can come for you, he who you fear so very much. We will leave you to cower and suffer, until you thirst for us to come and ask you again, to give you a chance to be free of this cell. Wait for us, we will come._

_But not soon."_

* * *

He had looked around then and he'd known. He hadn't wanted to admit it, even consider it, and had blessedly lost consciousness shortly thereafter. But now he was awake and he had to acknowledge what he could only _just_ bear to think about.

He has to say it now, before he loses his nerve.

"Jack…" he breathes.

"I know…how w-we can…get out of here."

_But I'm not going to like it._

*end of chapter two*


	3. Chapter 3

_I am shamed, I really am. I don't know how it took me so long to write this chapter. maybe because it was so hard for me to get it right. I'm still not sure about it. it's such a rollercoaster of emotions this time and I really wanted it to all fit and feel natural, like this was a natural way for one emotion to change into another one. but it was definitely hard. I really struggled with the angst._

_there are some really fun parts in this one though, I love the part where jack and the doctor just have a little banter-fight, I can so imagine the both of them giving into to that to distract them from the awfulness of their situation. and I love the analogy-rant. the doctor is so funny when he's frazzled. :P_

_enjoy the read, next chapter will be whumpier! :D_

* * *

*chapter three*

_"Jack…" he breathes._

_"I know…how w-we can…get out of here."_

* * *

Jack looks up, but when the Doctor's eyes flash with guilt he averts his gaze.

"Bloody floor…'s wet.." he mumbles, wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand. The Doctor doesn't comment.

"You said we can bust out of here?" Jack says, sniffing loudly and trying to draw attention away from himself.

"Yes."

"How?"

" There's a s-small…crawlspace… in the corner on… yo-your right. The stones there are loose, allowing the… water to seep awa-ay."

"It's a drain?" Jack asks confused and, yeah, a bit grossed out.

"Not…drain. C-crawlspace," the Doctor corrects him. "Shelpi use large crawlspaces…t-..t-to transport waste. Dunno why…but l-lucky for us….I suppose."

Jack nods, absentmindedly, mulling over the info. "Okay…are you gonna manage alone?"

The Doctor scrunches up his nose, or at least Jack thinks he scrunches up his nose, it's kinda hard to tell with the way the Doctor's face looks right now.

"…Alone?"

"The crawling through the crawlspace? You don't look all that steady on your feet, Doc. And it's not like I can carry you," he chuckles the last part. It leaves a bitter taste in his mouth.

_No Jack, don't do this. Don't make it hard. I've barely got the courage to say it at all. _

"You are not staying," he breathes, putting as much force in it as he can. But Jack misinterprets.

"Well, I'm not leaving you behind!" he shouts. "Goddammit Doc, you look like shit! You can barely stand. I'm not gonna-… wait what was that?" Jack stops his angry rant and strains his ears.

"I said…w-we go…t-to-together…" is the Doctor's soft reply.

Jack doesn't notice the way the Doctor cringes, or the way he almost vomits because of the force it took to get those words across his lips. He doesn't notice the abject terror in the Doctor's eyes, scared that Jack will say no. scared he'll say yes.

He knows what will happen if they stay, wellll he doesn't _know_ know, but he can imagine and it's not good. The Shelpi want something from him and they will shun no means to get it. They will break Jack apart in front of him and him in front of Jack. He can't let that happen, he literally can't. He doesn't think he can stand it. Even if the alternative scares him to the point of stopping a heart.

"Whaddya mean we go together?"

"…." He tries to answer, he really does, but all that makes it past his vocal cords is a terrified wheeze.

"Doc? You doin' okay?"

"…." Another pathetic wheeze and a panicked choking sound. The Doctor starts to shake as he fights himself to get the words out. Jack is getting more and more worried. He wants to go to the Doctor, his every instinct is screaming at him to go and comfort the Doctor, but he knows he can't touch him. Can't even get close.

"Shit, Doc, what do I do?" he shouts.

The Doctor can't reply, his throat is constricted with the panic he feels. He doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to tell Jack about this, he wants to…he wants to go home!

He has to though, there's no other choice.

_Push past it dammit! ….Oh please, just push past it. Just tell him, explain. Jus- ..Oh Rassilon he's moving. He's getting up and he's moving and he's going to come for me. Oh please no, no please. Please. _

….. _I can breathe…_

* * *

The Doctor opens the eyes he closed when the terror became too much. His vision is blurry with tears and the haze of panic slowly receding at the edges. He is scared. He can breathe. Why can he breathe? Why was that important again? He's so scared and nothing can make sense in this cell and he's confused and everything hurts….less.

Where's Jack?

"J-jack?..."

"Over here, Doc."

The Doctor cranes his neck, following the muffled, hollow sounding voice to see Jack's head pop out of the drain (_crawlspace!)._ Jack must have noticed the confusion playing out on the Doctor's face, because he answers the question before the Doctor even has time to ask it.

"You looked like you needed some space." He can't quite disguise the hurt in his voice. "So I moved. No chains anymore, see. Couldn't really get far if I stayed in the cell, so I lifted up those loose stones, like you said and crawled in. Figured I could give you some space to breathe if I crawled down far enough." He shrugs as he says the last part and does his best to make it seem like he's okay, like it's not killing him.

_Space to breathe, _the Doctor thinks, _you don't know how right you were, Jack._

"Thank you," he says out loud.

Jack nods and gives a small grin. "No problem, comes with the service." He winks. "So….what did you mean, you know, before. When you said we could go… together." He tries not to look too hopeful, it's really not working, he can tell.

The Doctor takes a deep breath, obviously scraping together the courage to start talking. He doesn't get a chance to, though, as Jack interrupts him.

"Wait, Doc, before you start, maybe you oughtta scoot back a bit, if you can. You know, get some more distance between us. Besides," Jack leers, " not that I'm not loving the view, but lobster-boiled and blistered isn't really the kind of flush I want to bring to your cheeks….any cheeks", he grins lasciviously.

The Doctor ignores the comment and looks down at himself. He does look a bit…overcooked.

His skin is indeed almost lobster-red in some places and he's covered in blisters, some who have opened and are weeping clear fluid.

He pokes a particularly sore patch on his chest and grimaces when it feels crispy to the touch. He calculates he must be about 30% covered in third degree burns and at least 40% in second degree burns. His skin feels tight and now that he's paying attention to it, really, really hot.

Jack is right, right now he needs the distance.

"Yeah… y-you're right, I need to move. Give me…a-a minute…"

"Sure Doc, take your time."

The Doctor pulls himself to his hands and knees with great effort and begins to shuffle towards the furthest corner of the cell, as far away from Jack as he can get. With every inch he moves it gets easier to breathe, his skin burns less and the tearing, ripping agony he had accepted to be his fate eases off into a more bearable torment.

He settles himself in the same corner he huddled in before and faces Jack again. It's easier to look at him now and that gives the Doctor hope. Even when Jack slowly crawls out of the, the…- okay fine, it's a drain!- and the Doctor winces, the pain is not as bad as it was. He gives Jack a smile, a real, honest, heart(s)warming smile. Jack smiles back.

"All settled then?"

"Yup, all cozy and comfy….wellll, as much as anyone can be with brown straw poking them in the bare bum", he sniffs, a glint of that familiar mischief in his eyes.

Jack grins. He recognizes a dare when he sees one and this one is far too tempting to resist. Even if it is just a temporary thing, this glimpse of the Doctor he knows gives Jack hope. He'll gladly pay the price for it later if it means he can enjoy it now. So he does.

"Maybe that's just the quality of the meat," Jack teases, "_I'm_ not bothered by the straw and I've got a great ass. Or so I've been told. Frequently."

"I'm not surprised."

"Wh-… really?"

"Nope. I have no trouble imagining you dropping your trousers with everyone you meet", the Doctor states seriously.

Jack laughs. "Some would argue I was doing them a favour."

"They were probably drunk."

Jack waggles his eyebrows, pretends not to have heard the Doctor's comment and shifts, changing the way he's sitting to show off some of his other frequently complimented on parts. He raises a cheeky eyebrow. "'Course, if you're not convinced by the view from the back, I have other assets."

The Doctor pulls a face. "Aww, Jack. It's bad enough I have to be locked in here naked without having your dangly bits…._dangle_ in my front of my face", he says with mock disgust.

"They'd have to be a bit closer to dangle in your face", Jack smirks. _And isn't that an image he needs a cold shower for._

"well, I guess some good had to come out of you not being able to get close to me", the Doctor chuckles, and then freezes, realising what he just said.

He needn't have worried though, Jack is enjoying the banter between them far too much to be offended and he guffaws.

"Oh Doc, leave it to you to find benefits in a situation like this!" Jack snorts and wishes he had a glass of hypervodka in his hand. This would have been the perfect moment to chug it down.

The Doctor relaxes and gives a small grin, raking his hand through his hair.

"I can't believe Rose was so possessive of you that she would make it impossible for me to touch you! And here I always thought she wouldn't mind to share", Jack belts out. "'Course, can't really blame her", he smirks again, openly letting his eyes wander.

The Doctor laughs and makes a show of covering himself, raising his voice to sound like an affronted old maid caught in her skivvies. They both share a laugh at that.

Then the Doctor calms and with a smile still on his face, but a more serious tone to his voice, he speaks.

"It doesn't have to be that way, though."

Jack stops laughing and looks up. Is this it? The moment where he'll have to pay the price for having a bit of unburdened fun with his Doctor.

"It's what I tried to say before", the Doctor continues. "I didn't really know if it would work, just knew it _had_ to, or we'd never get out. But I'm sure now,…wellll , I say sure, more sure, sure-er, sure-ish definitely. A sure of sorts," he finishes, seemingly quite chuffed with his definition. Then he looks at Jack, who is trying very hard not to laugh…or sneeze, maybe.

He's ranting now, yep, he's started a rant. He knows he's ranting, but he can't help it. The panic he felt about the subject before is replaced by an almost manic hysteria as he tries to just spout the words out before he loses his nerve.

He clears his throat. "Aherm, yes, right…Anyway! The thing is…," he searches for the right words, " …you're like, like….ooh! You're a bit like a really hot bath, you are." The Doctor grins at Jack, again proud of his analogy.

"I'm…bathwater?" Jack asks, thoroughly confuddled.

"Yes! Exactly! Except, no, you're not. Not at all. Not even close, but for now, let's say you are.

So you're hot bathwater, and I'm someone who wants to take a bath but I can't….no wait, you're not a bath."

"I'm not a bath", Jack repeats.

"You were never a bath of course, but even more so now…. Maybe you're a sauna…" the Doctor mumbles.

"I'm a sauna now?"

"No! Yes, well no, but… okay, you're something really hot- "

"Obviously."

"- and I can't really think of a fitting analogy, but you're scorching and I can't get too close."

"I liked it better when I was a hot sweaty sauna", Jack mock-whines.

"I bet you did", the Doctor says offhandedly. "So! Now there's a problem, I have to get close to you or we can't escape. How do I do that? Well, the answer is simple. Habituation!"

"…I don't follow."

"Think Jack! Habituation, all I have to do is get used to you." The Doctor says animatedly.

"You don't mean.." Jack catches on to the Doctor's plan, and he's not sure he likes it.

"Yep! Just like a hot…scorch thing, I have to get used to your heat. I can't just charge in, I'll get burned, but if I ease myself, get a little closer every time, my body will have the time to adapt, adjust itself to its new surroundings and it won't burn me as much.

I know it works, just look at me," the Doctor gestures at himself. "I was stammering and snatching for air at this exact distance before and now I'm not."

"Are you crazy!?" Jack yells. "I _am_ looking at you! You're burned, _I_ burned you! That's what getting close to me does to you, it burns your skin and covers you in blisters. You can't come near me, you can never come near me again!" Jack cries, struggling to hold back tears again.

"Oh Jack", the Doctor sighs, "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault! It's mine. I'm this thing now, this _wrong_ thing. I'm wrong", Jack sobs.

"I should never have said that, I'm sorry. No, let me finish", the Doctor says, cutting off Jack.

"I was scared. I'm still…scared. You, what you are, to a Time Lord you are so very frightening and…I suppose…you blindsided me. I didn't expect to feel that, it surprised me and I panicked. It was instinct. And then I saw it was you, that that horrible feeling was coming from you and I… I thought you were dead. I had never expected to see you again and when I did…" he sighs sadly. "I suppose the fear just took over.

And then, just when I thought I was getting it under control, getting myself under control, our friends walked in and I couldn't…I-I just…i-it was t-t-too m-much a-and-" the Doctor gulps in air as he involuntarily relives the horror of being forced closer to the burning Fact that is Jack, as he remembers his skin bubbling and boiling and his insides warping with Jack's proximity.

"Whoah Doc! Okay, it's okay, you're fine, just breathe." Jack calls out to him, the swift change in his demeanour jolting Jack out of his own melancholy.

The Doctor sniffs and combs his hands through his hair, scrubbing them over his face on the way back. "Yeah, sorry, right, I'm sorry, I-I'm just…I'm sorry", he breathes shakily.

"Guess we're both not as alright as we like to think we are, huh?" Jack smiles softly.

The Doctor cracks a small smile in agreement.

* * *

"You got your breath back, yet? Or do I need to climb back down the drain again?" Jack jokes. He gets a small nod and another smile and it's enough.

"Alright then," Jack exhales loudly, releasing the tension. "Let's recap a little. You have a plan to get us out of here, it's basically 'crawl down the drain and escape', right? Okay. We need to go together, I'm guessing that's because it's gonna be a maze of drains down there and you're the only one of us who can navigate through them. This means you have to find a way to deal with my 'situation' 'cause we're gonna have to be pretty close together in there, and you figured the best was to do that is to expose yourself to me more an' more so you'll get used to the pain enough for you to bear it and follow me out."

"That's not exactly what I-"

"Come on, Doc. I ain't stupid. There's no way this is not gonna hurt you. I know you, Doc. Plus, I saw what happened. It's gonna hurt."

The Doctor averts his gaze and that is all the evidence Jack needs.

"Why Doc? Why is this the only way, why can't we just wait for our _buddies_ to come back and get out that way. You know, talk your way out, like in the old days," Jack grins when he says it, but he can hear himself imploring the Doctor. Why can't they escape in a way that doesn't burn the skin of his bones.

"They won't listen, I already tried. They're angry and greedy. They don't like the way the both of us just showed up out of nowhere in their cell-complex, but they know an opportunity when they see one. They want the power we have, the power to travel like that. Your vortex manipulator and my Tardis. They've been trying to get access to them, but they don't understand how your vortex manipulator works and they can't get into the Tardis", the Doctor explains this with a small smirk.

"They won't give up though, they'll keep coming at us, they won't stop. They'll break us apart in front of the other and we'll crack, eventually. We're both quite long lived, Jack, they have time.

They warned me when they left that they would leave me here to stew. They think that just leaving me here with you will make me scared enough, will make me _hurt_ enough, to give up the Tardis.

I don't know when they'll be back, but it gives us time. Time we need to use to escape, because if we're not gone the next time they come… it's going to get so much worse."

They're silent for a moment while Jack lets everything sink in.

"Okay", he finally says.

The Doctor looks at him. "Okay?"

"Yeah, okay. On one condition," Jack warns. The Doctor looks at him expectantly and a little warily.

"We start tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes, you're exhausted, covered in burns and welts and you're just plain not pleasant to look at right now", Jack jokes. "So, we have a rest, both of us, and we figure it out tomorrow, okay?"

The Doctor seems hesitant and anxious. _This must be so hard for him_, Jack thinks.

"Okay", the Doctor agrees, finally.

"Okay then." Jack shifts again and settles himself on his side to sleep, making it obvious that he expects the Doctor to follow and have his rest as well.

"Goodnight Doctor."

The Doctor lays down on his side as well, not arguing with Jack this time. He understands that he needs to give him this, this small measure of control, so Jack can feel like he is in charge at least a little. _This must be so hard for him_, the Doctor thinks.

"Night Jack."

* * *

*a little while later*

"Hey Doc?"

"Yeah?"

"Made you say 'drain'."

*End of chapter three*


End file.
